Portable electronic devices are known to comprise various calendar functions and reminder functions. Examples of such devices to be mentioned in this context include portable communication devices, such as Nokia Communicator 9210, personal digital assistants (PDA), laptop PCs, and palmtop PCs. Also several mobile phones today have calendar functions and reminder functions.
The user can use the calendar functions for recording various events, such as meetings, appointments, trips, visits, etc. for the respective point of time in a memory of the device. Normally, it is possible to provide such calendar notes with a reminder, wherein the device will remind the user of an event, for example the beginning of a meeting.
One drawback in the devices equipped with such calendar functions is, for example, the fact that it is not possible to define such events which are not dependent on a particular point of time but which are rather related to a particular location, to at least some extent. For example, a person would like to be reminded of doing the shopping. In the calendar functions, the person could make an entry of this, for example, for the current date, and a reminder for a time estimated in advance to be suitable, for example for the time when he/she will probably be on his/her way home from work. However, the person is not necessarily close to a shop when the reminder comes; for example, he/she may have been delayed when leaving the place of work. Thus, the reminder may come too early and the person may forget it. On the other hand, the reminder may come so late that the person has already passed the shop and may already be at home when the reminder comes. On the other hand, an event may be such that it is not easy to define a suitable time for reminding of it. Such a situation is, for example, the purchase of an item in such a place which is not close to a location where the person has daily errands. In this case the person would like to be reminded when he/she is close to such a place. With conventional calendar functions and reminder functions, it is not possible to record such an event so that the reminder would, for sure, come at a suitable moment.
Sometimes, in families and between friends, there may be situations in which there is an errand to run, for example to buy travel tickets or to do the shopping. In such a case, it would be advantageous that the errand would be run by the person best suited for doing it. Such a person is, for example, a person who is moving in a region where the errand can be run. However, it is not always known if there is anybody close to such a location, wherein the person commissioning the errand should inquire several persons, for example by phone, who could run the errand. Such a round of inquiries may require several telephone calls, most of which are unnecessary for running the errand. This will cause unnecessary costs and take time of the person commissioning the errand as well as the persons contacted.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,905 presents a system, in which the user of a wireless device, such as a wireless phone, a car phone, or another programmable portable device, may set reminders based on location. Thus, the user enters a desired reminder and sets coordinate data for it, on the basis of which the user wants the reminder to be presented in the device. The device is provided with a positioning receiver for receiving signals from satellites of the GPS system and for performing positioning of the device. This positioning data is transmitted to the device in which the data is compared with the coordinate data related to the reminders. If the coordinate data of a reminder corresponds to the current position data of the device, the message related to the reminder is presented to the user. In this way, the user can receive reminders, for example, when approaching a post office or a shop. In the coordinate data, it is also possible to define a range (distance from the location of the coordinates), wherein the reminder is given when the user comes within this range. However, this system has the disadvantage that, for example, location-specific reminders can be entered in the device by the user only. Furthermore, the reminders take no notice of the moment of time when the user is in the location complying with the coordinate data defined in the reminder. Thus, the reminder may be useless, if the errand related to the reminder cannot be run at the time in question, for example when the shop is closed.